photography 101: ISO + aperture

However, I had a good teacher, and good teachers teach so others can learn. In the grand scheme of this lil’ thing called life, we hopefully then go on to teach others what we have learned and pass on that priceless gift of knowledge to them.

My gift-giving skills may not be of interest to you.

My gift-giving skills may be way off.

My gift-giving skills could totally suck.

But here they are anyways. I hope Santa approves.

CAMERA BASICS

ISO:camera’s sensitivity to light

aperture: depth of field (depends on the focal length of your lens + the distance you are from the subject you are shooting)

shutter speed:how long your camera’s opening is well…open

white balance: compensation for the fact not all light is the same temperature (flourescent vs. natural vs. tungsten vs. yellow)

ISO

As I mentioned above, ISO simply translates to how sensitive your camera is to light.

Have you ever been on the beach where the sun is shining SO brightly, that you can barely keep your eyes open because your corneas feel like they are being burned to death? Or, have you needed to shadoob in the middle of the night and groggily stepped through the pitch blackness of your house in desperate search of the toilet only to run straight into a wall?

I speak from experience on both accounts when I say our eyes are sensitive to light.

Just like the camera.

Since I took these pictures in a artificially-lit room at a high school at 8:00pm, the ISO of 800 obviously worked best. The more light, the less the camera needs to work to compensate for light (ahem, low ISO). The less the light, the more the camera needs to work to compensate for light (ahem, high ISO). It is also the reason why you may come upon “noise,” or a grainy look, in your photos when you have a high ISO. The camera has to compensate in other areas to get the right lighting for your composition.

ISO 800 = early morning or at night, when the sun has yet to come out and conditions are fairly dark

ISO 1600 = extremely dark conditions

APERTURE

I think aperture is still the toughest one to wrap my mind around.

Probably because I’m pretty sure they purposely make it confusing.

On your camera, your aperture is likely going to range anywhere from f/3.0 to f/20. Like I said, this number is your depth of field, which in real human terms means how far you are away from what you want your camera to focus on. Do you want to focus whatever is exactly 3 feet in front of you? Or, do you want to focus on what’s 3 feet in front of you and everything farther beyond that?

As most things in my world, sometimes it’s easier to see it in pictures.

If you look closely, you’ll notice two things: (a) my ISO was clearly not high enough, as these pictures are all slightly underexposed (a higher ISO would have given me more brightness and made the whites more “white”) and (b) while it’s slightly hard to see in these shots, the more things are in focus in each picture as I upped the aperture. Look above, and keep your eye on the ring – it’s blurry at f/5.6 but in focus at f/10.

Again, a low-numbered aperture yields this (look at those center cookies clearly in focus!)…

…while a high-numbered aperture yields a big ol’ picture with LOTS of things in focus (the trees! the snow! that barn way way way way in the back there!).

Get it?

Good, because things are about to get confusing.

The higher the number of the aperture (high = large depth of field), the SMALLER the lens opening is. And vice versa (low = smaller depth of field = LARGER the lens opening). It’s confusing, I know. I go by the rule that if I have something like a landscape or a picture I envision everything being in focus (i.e. large group, skyline), I use a higher aperture. If I am taking close-up food shots or pictures of one specific thing I want in focus, then a lower aperture suits me just fine.

Kapeesh?

Alright, you have officially graduated from photography 101.

Because I’ve got a sink of dishes calling my Everythingtarian name and have yet to eat dessert, it’s imperative I go and make both those things happen.

i loved this post! photography is so hard, and Ive had 2 entire school quarters of it! But I have a boyfriend who knows where its at and teaches me things..I think its all trial an error for the most part. I just got down ISO and finally aperature clicked with me last week! crazy I never got that one either!!!! Go have dessert and skip the dishes! Thats what Ima do lol.

i have played around with my dslr settings and i agree aperture is the toughest to wrap one’s head around…and it’s like algebra..what works to help one person “get” it isnt necessarily the explanation that helps someone else. but i think your explanations will help 99% of people to get it more.

and experience and just shooting is the best teacher! and in my house, my kitchen, my world, time of day i shoot…shooting with less than like an f/7 to 8 yields bad results. I am a f/9 or f/10 girl usually :)

I was really tempted not to read this post, since this kind of camera stuff scares the crap out of me…but I read it. Slowly, I’m kinda sorta half-beginning to maybe understand this stuff a little bit. That doesn’t mean I’ll be changing the settings any time soon, though :)

FANTASTIC tutorial! My husband used to rock a Nikon D3000 and now has a D300. *Love* He’s a self learner and taught me a good bit along the way. I just use my iphone for now though. I may get a nice camera later on.

Oooh boy I have so much to learn! I just ordered myself a brand new camera and I’m so excited (and overwhelmed) by learning all the different features. Definitely bookmaking this post, thanks Holly-Girl!

I’m going to love this series you’re doing. If I keep reading over and over and practicing, I’ll get it one day! What lenses do you use? Buying one other than the stock 18/55 is next for me. Probably the 50mm to start.

girl – I’ve had my camera for almost a year longer than you have and you’ve totally surpassed my in your photography know-how. Go you! and thanks for the tips. Now I’m only kind of sort of really confused ;)

I read a good tip. Avoid pictures of people posing. Pictures of people are far more intersting, revealing and story-telling when you have captured them engaged in an activity other than the eye of the photographer. Kinda like the front yard of a house. If you really want to know something about the people who own the house drive through the alley and check out the backyard. That’s where thier personality resides. The front yard is just where they keep a smiley faced pose.

Great lesson! I think I actually “got” it! I’ve come across some other blogs with little photography tutorials, but my adult ADD usually kicks into high gear once the topic gets to aperture size and I just look at the pictures! Can’t wait for 102!